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In a stunning decision, the Georgia Supreme Court in Beneke v. Parker held today that for injury cases stemming from the commission of a crime including traffic violations, the statute of limitations is tolled from the date of the accident until the traffic citation is resolved.

Typically, a victim only has two years from the date of the car accident to file suit. The Georgia statute of limitations on injury claims is extremely strict, with only rare exceptions. This ruling is a drastic deviation.

This case stemmed from a car accident where the lawyers filed the suit more than two years after the Georgia statute of limitations on injury cases. The trial judge threw the case out but now the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that the two years is extended by the same amount of time as passed between the commission of the crime and the resolution of the ticket.

When I worked for insurance companies, I was the lawyer that the insurance carrier would hire to defend the policy holder who had been sued and even though I practice exclusively on the plaintiff’s side now, I still field phone calls from panicked consumers. If you have been contacted by a person claiming injury in a car accident in Georgia or if you have been sued, you should follow these five guidelines.

1) Always contact your car insurance company immediately if there was any damage at all. You do not want to give them an excuse not to defend and indemnify you.

2) All car insurance policies, even a minimum limits $25,000.00 policy, will provide you with a free lawyer in the event you are sued .

I had a South Carolina lawyer telephone my office tonight with a question about the Georgia statute of limitations. There were confused under the wording of the statute as to whether you had until the day after the second anniversary of the injury or on the anniversary. As most trial lawyers know, the statute of limitations on personal injury claims runs on the second anniversary of the harm. “Actions for injuries to the person shall be brought within two years after the right of action accrues….” O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. It used to be under the old OCGA § 1-3-1(d)(3), that the statute ran on the day before the second anniversary date but under the revised statute, it was changed to read as follows…

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“My doctor diagnosed me with a concussion after a car accident and says I have post concussion syndrome. What does that mean?” It is well known that some doctors are lacking in the bedside manner department and one of their biggest shortcomings can be the failure to tell the patient what to expect and what to do about the injury. As the lawyer, I am often left explaining the symptoms and treatment options to the client. Continue reading

You can change Georgia car insurance companies even if there is a claim pending against you or if you have a claim pending against your own insurance, like a Georgia Uninsured Motorist claim. The only thing that matters is whether there was valid coverage on the date of the loss. Whatever happens after that is irrelevant and won’t affect the claims.

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Section one of my Book on how to buy Car insurance in Georgia is now complete and I have uploaded it to the resources section of my website. This is a step by step guide that will walk you through how to buy good insurance coverage and it is the first half of my insurance book which is due out in January. In addition to the materials on how to buy car insurance, the second section of the book contains instructions on how to handle car accident claims written from the perspective of a wrongful death lawyer. As a car accident book,. it has no peer.

I see unusual and tragic facts patterns quite often and recently we analyzed an unusual potential case for a client. The mother of a Georgia woman contacted us to see whether we could bring a claim on behalf of her deceased daughter against the daughter’s deceased husband. The husband negligently crashed the car the unlucky couple was riding in and killed them both. The short answer is “yes”, although there are some practical limitations on what can be done with such a case.

Normally in Georgia, a spouse may not sue a spouse for personal injury because there is spousal immunity. This rule exists to protect the sanctity of marriage. However, when one spouse dies, the public interest in preserving the marriage no longer has the same power. In the case of Jones v. Jones 259 Ga. 49, 376 S.E.2d 674 (1989), the daughter brought a wrongful death suit against the wife who had killed the father. The father’s insurance lawyers argued that spousal immunity barred the suit but the Court ruled that when the spouse is dead, the spousal immunity prohibition has no real purpose and violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Although no one wants to see a family fracture in a hailstorm of litigation, where there is negligence and separate family interests in the two estates, a wrongful death attorney can bring the claim.

One of our readers asked “can I appeal my Fulton County property taxes even when the don’t send an assessment?” Given that I practice law primarily as a wrongful death attorney, I went to Hal Roach, a property tax assessor who handles appeals for Georgia Property Tax assessments and has twenty years of government experience.

As we discussed in the previous article on how to appeal your Fulton County and City of Atlanta taxes, you used to need to have a Change of Assessment notice sent to you to trigger your right to file an appeal. So if they are not raising your assessment, you normally won’t get the Change of Assessment notice. Good news though, they changed the rule.

Here is the new link to the revised directions for Fulton County.

I just completed posting a detailed timeline on the website answering the question “how long will it take for a lawyer to settle my Georgia case?” As I detailed in the article, not every case should be settled and more and more often, I am encouraging my client’s to allow me to litigate their cases because Georgia insurance companies are low-balling significant injury cases. Remember that the timeline describes what you should expect for a straightforward Georgia car accident case. As any car accident lawyer will tell you, each case is different, as is each Judge.

If you are in a car accident in Georgia and the person that hit you is not a resident, you have the right to hale them into Court in the County in Georgia where the crash happened or in your home county. We frequently deal with issues regarding venue (the proper court in which the lawsuit must be filed). Normally, under the Georgia Constitution you have to sue a Georgia citizen or corporation in the County where they reside so that there is a jury of their peers. GA. CONST. Art. VI, II, Para. VI. However, the Non-Resident Motorist statute makes an exception for drivers who lived outside of Georgia at the time of the crash. O.C.G.A. 40-12-3.

Under Georgia law, the complaint (the document that starts a law suit) must include facts that establish venue. O.C.G.A. 9-11-8(a)(2). A skilled lawyer knows which counties are more favorable and can walk you through the options. If you decide to file the suit on your own though, be sure to read the statutes first.